Bridgwater Town Council launched  a new town centre initiative to tackle concerns by residents and businesses  about the effect of anti social behaviour. Town centre trader David Harris-Heffer of Initiis Ltd said “I noticed a newfound optimism from local Businesses through collaborating with the town council and the police to tackle the anti social behaviour currently crippling the town centre . It’s clear that Bridgwater has an incredibly loyal community and that through working together can create a thriving town centre environment.” Rob Semple, Community spokesman for  Bridgwater Town Council said “We are always looking at ways to develop and improve Bridgwater town centre to make it a place people want to visit, work and invest in. We take the matters raised very seriously. We want people to feel safe when visiting Bridgwater town centre and we will continue to work with our partners to find solutions to the issues raised.”

Background to the initiative

Following an approach from Town Centre trader and operator of the Vodaphone shop David Harris Bridgwater Town Council with the kind assistance of the owner Candida Leaver of the Old Vicarage facilitated a meeting of Town Centre Traders; the Police and Town Wardens. The meeting was run by Rob Semple the Town Council’s Director of Community Services and he shared the top table with Kirwan Pritchard the Anti Social Behaviour Lead Officer at Avon and Somerset Police.

Cllr Tim Mander (Labour – Westover) and Chair of the Town Council’s Police Forum summed up the meeting as follows:“Having attended a number of Police Forums since I have been elected whilst it was great to have so many local traders engaged enough to attend this meeting, and they numbered over 25, it is disappointing to hear once more the lived experience of the problems created by the street drinkers; large groups of unruly youths; drug dealing/taking and shop lifting. The manager of the Nationwide outlined how she had had to call 999 three times in the last fortnight following brawling drunks outside the bank and on two occasions she had had to shut the branch. The Manager of Angel Place and proprietor of Cafe Kreme both highlighted how gangs of masked up youths had created mayhem and upset customers. The manager of Boots explained why they now locked all doors bar one and employed security and despite this still had shoplifters regularly working in and walk out with arm full of goods. Many others contributed with their own experiences and of course questions were raised regarding the Police response. There does seem to be a problem with the way the Police capture complaints, particularly as Kirwan Pritchard claimed there were very few recorded complaints despite the fact numerous traders had reported issues.  “

Austerity the root cause

Cllr Mander continued “Trying to understand why problems have escalated very quickly pointed to the 14 years of austerity the Police had lost a large number of experienced of officers and were still short of resources and it was a juggling act to effectively bid for the numbers of officer’s Bridgwater needed. Diogo Rodrigues Tory Councilor and Proprietor of SL-ate bemoaned the failure of youth services to plan for school holidays yet somewhat ironically the Youth Service had been slashed to non-existence as a result of 14 years of Tory government austerity.

“The Police were challenged over the perception that young people could “get away with anything” they did say they had and were taking action against certain individuals which because of the age of the individuals had to remain confidential.  There was also criticism of the way Somerset Housing Services were placing single homeless people from Taunton in Bridgwater Town Centre. “

Traders Vent

Cllr Mander concluded “Whilst understandably the fed-up traders made the most of the opportunity to vent their spleen and highlight their everyday problems. Which is not surprising as clearly as there is a feeling they are not really being listened too. Despite this there was a chink of light in the person of Sam Smith of Paul Smith Associates who explained how his involvement with a football project in Hamp had given hope to two youngsters who had been served with ASBO’s. “

The meeting produced some actions which were as follows:

1.Kirwan Pritchard and Rob Semple to arrange a meeting with Somerset Council housing team to discuss their allocations policy.

2. The Town Wards to be asked to concentrate their patrols in the next two weeks between in Fore Street between Blake Statue and Town Bridge.

3. Social Services would be contacted in terms of creating a single point of contact in respect of reporting youth crime issues

4. Additional CCTV locations would be investigated.

Avon and Somerset Police and the Bridgwater Town Wardens were also present to listen to the concerns raised by local businesses about Bridgwater town centre. Attendees were given the opportunity to discuss what they saw as the issues for the town, raise their concerns and share information and best practice. The Council is committed to working with local businesses, the Bridgwater Town Team, Avon and Somerset Police and other partners to create a town people want to visit and spend time in. Bridgwater Town Council is already working hard to improve the town centre areas, maintaining flower baskets and containers, keeping the streets clean and making sure litter bins are emptied regularly.